Week 98 Marcona

the CRAZIEST thing happened this week!!
No legit, this is an experience and a HALF.  Haha, so we had some companionship exchanges with the Elders in San Carlos an hour north of Marcona, it was super calm, I was with Elder Lescano from Texas.  When we got back from a day of pure success, we went back to the apartment to make some (pretty wierd textured but good tasting) oven peach cobbler.  My companion and Elder Valverde from Mexico just said that we have an appointment tomorrow (Friday) with the sub-manager of SHOUGANG HIERRO PERÚ!!  Not even joking.  So we go on Friday and they had us talking with their public representative (yes they're so rich they have one of those) and he was just talking with us making us comfortable.  It was crazy because it sounds like they are a monopoly company.  The guys are shipping water and electricity to the city and expecting the city to pay it back haha.  It's insane so we are waiting here for about an hour and a half and then they invite us to go upstairs.  And we had a visit with Wu Yi Min himself!!!!  He sat us down and said "do you guys speak Spanish?" (in spanish of course) and we said "of course we do!" in my head I was thinking "the real question is do YOU speak Spanish?"  He spoke fine but his Chinese accent was really heavy haha.  So he gets to know us a little bit and then he says "so I have a family member who is applying to Yale, he said I've seen you guys walk around and I've noted you are both North Americans and was wondering if you can help proofread his application."  And me and my companion looked at each other as if we were both thinking "Ammon also had to serve king Lamoni before baptizing his whole village."   So we agreed! 

We took the sheets home, and we revised it for about an hour during language study.  So we show up for our follow up appointment and he receives us again and sits us down again for the revision.  And he was talking for no joke 2 HOURS about the revisions we made, because his English is nothing to sneeze at either.  The guy is like the second man up in line for the biggest mining company in Ica and he is just like being our best buddy.  He says he's going to go to English class this week, we are kinda stoked about that, who knows he might just bring his whole people over there as well hahaha! Ojála!

We got some pretty good contacts out of that one, we talked to some of the people we were waiting with and it really surprised me to see how receptive they were haha.  It was kinda cool.  And when the members started to figure out that we were talking to like their bosses it really made them interested in how we are working in their Branch.  By the way, first sacrament meeting was crazy, it's a branch but it's also a really really big branch, we almost filled the building.  Super good attendance.  We have 3 investigators that are progressing towards their baptismal date.  We have María and Jennifer they are both members that haven't been baptized so we are working with them a lot and they are progressing super well.  Then we have Guido.  He is a young man that is progressing really well.  We just need to keep him coming to church is all.  We are doing everything we can to keep Marcona on the rise!  We are working really hard, trust me!

I'm writing you all from Nazca right now, we had to travel from Marcona on Sunday night to get here so that we could help with the zone barbeque.  Then we are going to travel tomorrow at about 5:00pm to go to Ica.  Then on Wednesday we are gonna wake up super early to head off to Pisco.  Then we return on Thursday.  That's gonna be fun!  We have our interviews with President on Wednesday as well.  I hope he doesn't say anything embarrassing in the zone conference haha.  He already told the zone how much more time left I have on the mission, that little bugger haha.

That's about all for this week, thanks for reading this short little letter.  I LOVE YOU!!

Con mucho amor,
Elder Olsen


PS mom, next week I'll have the pic for sure

The China dude

The barbeque

 

Week 97 Marcona

Happy Saturday!!! (Except that he writes on Mondays again-Ha Ha!)

We have had a super great week here in Marconita.  I've gotta tell you one thing about Marcona that I wasn't really expecting.  Almost everyone here is working for a Chinese mining company called Shougang or something like that.  I learned a new Spanish word, well not Spanish actually, more like a Marcona word.  It's "huelga" which means like their break shift.  They work about 12 hours a day until their huelga when they get anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks or more off of work.  It's kind of funny because the majority of our members have some higher positions so they choose their huelga to be the weekends. Many of our investigators don't have that opportunity haha.  It's super crazy haha.  Not only that but the Chinese have been in the town for so long that many of the people have Chinese family as well.

Well, before I answer questions I have one for dad.  How's being the new ward Young Men's president? hahaha sorry, I had to do it.  I heard all of the news except the news revealed with the womens session.  I was really surprised about some of the things they started with this new conference.  I don't know about you guys but I'm excited for the 2020 April Conference!  I loved Elder Bednar's talk so much, his remarks were super good.  I don't have my notes on me right now but I loved the ones about missionary work, especially Elder Uchtdorf's on going "down and back again" haha.  I loved his remarks about how we, like Bilbo Baggins, should leave all of our comforts like we did before this life and get on the adventure trail.  My companion says that getting to zone conference is a three day thing for us haha.  I believe it.  The zone conference is in Pisco, which is about 6-7 hours away so we part at 5:00PM the day before to Ica then we wake up and leave Ica about 6:00AM then after the conference we stay the night in Ica, then we part for Nazca the next morning.  We from Marcona get back at around 2-3:00 haha.

Now our investigators are actually doing super well.  We achieved all of this weeks goals except for investigators with a baptismal date.  We are working with Guido, he is a young man that the Elder's found last transfer that basically told them he wants to be baptized.  His parents are super supportive.  Our other investigator that's progressing is Jenifer.  Also the Elder's before found her.  She had been investigating the church for quite some time, and recently she has showed interest in being baptized.  Almost her whole family are members, most of them less actives but her mom in active and supports her a lot.  We are also teaching her cousins, Juan and Mateo.  With them we are just kind of waiting for the OK from their mom.  They have been attending Church and all of the activities that come with it for the past month.

That's all time lets me write. Thanks for everything!!  I love you!!


Con Amor,
Elder Olsen


Pictures of some beaches we went to. Note the super cute baby seagulls. they were like running away from the waves that went toward them hahaha.

Not hard to find out how this guy died

They call this place "Playa Hermosa" 

what a beautiful beach haha

Week 96 B

Happy Transfers!

Well that was a super long travel.  We started the travel at 6:00AM where we went to the Church where the office was, then at 6:30AM we went to a different Chapel, the one in Las Villas.  From there, at 7:15AM we went to the bus station where we had our bus leaving at 9:30AM.  We got on and traveled until 3:00PM to get to Ica.  We had to get off the bus there and then get on another in order for us to go to Nazca.  So we left Ica at 4:30PM and didn't get to Nazca until 5:30PM.  Then we had to leave Nazca to go to Marcona at 6:15PM and we were in a van until 7:15PM where we had to get all of my stuff on a mototaxi and finally arrived at home at 7:30PM.  It was super long haha.  Not quite as long as my travels from Ayacucho to Lima with the good ol 12 hours nonstop in a bus but it is still way long!

Yohrgenis got baptized too last Saturday!!!  It was a super cool service, a lot of people showed up to support him!  Now I'm here in Marcona and I still don't know any of our investigators.  We only had time to go out from 8:00-9:00 last night due to just barely having arrived 30 minutes prior.  I've been told that we have two people who are progressing really well and have a baptismal date set, they are Jennifer and Vanessa.  I'm super excited to be out and getting to know the area.  I know the branch mission leader, he is super awesome. Just about his whole family is super active in the Church.  I'll be meeting our Branch President tomorrow night sometime.  I've heard his family is super active as well.  Both of them work in different mines in Marcona.

Marcona has a bunch of weird little stories.  It is basically this small mining town where people go to work in mines.  Apparently the mining operations started from people that settled there from Utah and brought the Church with it creating 2 wards in Marcona.  Since then people retire or find better work in Nazca and Ica and moved there making it now a branch but some of the members really want to try to make it be two wards once again.  The members all have this vision of making Marcona grow into being two wards once again.  I guess I have some work to do here!

That's about all for this week, I'll tell more next week when I see a little bit more.  I attached some pictures for you though!!  We went to the elephant boulder for Pday!


Con mucho amor,
Elder Olsen

Yohrgenis' baptism!!!!!
 

A pic of the first time I'd seen sun in who knows how long

The coast of Marcona,
with a couple of pictures of a rock
that looks like an elephant.

Week 96 Office

I'M GOING SOUTH!!!!!

First off the question on everybody's mind as to where I'm going!  Short answer: Marcona, Nazca with Elder Roylance!!  Long answer: President Richey called me in his office when he and the assistants were doing the transfers and he showed me the transfer board before it was even finalized and ready and he pointed to my name in Nazca and said "there you are and your companion is going to be Elder Roylance, the district leader."  He said that he has seen a lot of potential in Elder Roylance and wants me to help him become the best leader that he can be.  It's going to be the Elder's first transfer as a district leader but he'll do great I don't think I'll need to do teach much with him haha.  I met him a couple of transfers ago because he was a trainer and we train the people who are training on how to be healthy.  He is from Utah I believe, he has more than a year in the mission, he is super humble and super positive, I can't wait for the work we will do in Nazca!  I will tell you more about him next week.  President told me that it was close enough to the beach that I could go run there every morning for exercise, it's got some beautiful coasts.  Apparently I will have one of the nicest apartments in the mission.  I'm going from the highest north area in the mission to the furthest south.  It's going to be a 12ish hour bus ride and I'll have to take 3 separate buses. Fun.

Fun little side note while we are talking about transfers, I'm going to go back to my normal writing schedule.  I'm no longer going to write on Saturdays but rather on Mondays.  This week is going to be transfers, therefore I'm going to be on a bus all day on Monday, so I'll write on Tuesday next week.  But be prepared to write on Mondays again.  It's going to be a super excited transfer as an in-field missionary.  Especially in a little town in the middle of no where haha, they say it's already super hot over there.  I'll definitely send pictures next week of the little town, along with Johrgenis' baptism photos.

Valeria was baptized successfully!!  Her best friend who referred her to us, Estefanía, sang for her baptism.  The members really helped us out with getting her fellow-shipped!  She had a great experience investigating the church and now she is the ward's newest member (well not for long) Yohrgenis (I spelt his name wrong last week) is now going to get baptized today at 7:00!  To answer dad's question Yohrgenis is from Vargas Venezuela, he says it is just above Caracas.  He is super excited to be baptized!  He is going to get baptized on fast Sunday and asked that the members not bring food so that everyone can participate in the fast Sunday.  Super cool, the guy definitely made a complete turnaround with his life.  He said that he had to make some big changes with his life to follow this path in his life, and he did it.

Valeria's baptism

Well that's about it for this week, thanks for the package I am enjoying it for sure, I love you and pray for all of you!  Thanks!!


Hablamos el martes, con amor,
Elder Olsen


PS https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm5q_daua2JdizO_fo-wZlw

Week 95 Office

Happy Saturday!

We had ourselves a great week!  I'm showing Elder Jensen the ropes with the whole health secretary thing.  It's funny how he's just like how I was when I started out.  It is like a fire hose of information and you can only catch so much haha.  He's doing an amazing job, he is already starting to understand the proactive part of his job.  A lot of it is not knowing how to do stuff and just figuring it out haha.  He loves the phone calls just like I did!  It's our favorite part of the job!

Things have been going good this week!  The stars aligned just right so I could teach Elder Jensen about every little detail about what I need to do.  I even trained him on how to make some Permethrin hahaha, I told him about the whole story of me trying to get Permethrin haha.  We have been working extra hard in the proselyting area so that Elder Jensen can start of on the run!  We are in transfer prep mode right now!  I have the feeling this one is going to be a doozy haha.  We are going to be on 'go time' pretty quick here!  And we haven't been working as a trio.  A couple of weeks ago we received a missionary who has tendinitis on his knees so that he could stay with us and chill.  Usually we have dropped him off at a Melchizedek Priesthood holder and picked him up after.  But now that we have Elder Jensen we have 2 companionships go out and have one on the "bench" with him in the office.  I still have no clue where I'm going.  The other day President sat me down and said "Elder Olsen, where do you want me to put you next transfer?"  My natural man was thinking "Ayacucho, Ayacucho, Ayacucho!"  But I just said "President you can put me wherever is convenient for you and wherever the Spirit says I should be."  We don't really know yet, but I feel like it might be somewhere in the south.  There are rumors that they are opening up 2-3 areas in the south.  I might be sent opening one of them.

Everything is still going really well as far as the proselyting area goes, we are seeing so many miracles!  Valeria is getting baptized today at 4:00!  We are super excited about that, she has been reading a lot in the Book of Mormon and is really excited about the big day! We saw a super big miracle on Sunday.  We were waiting for people to show up and greeting at the door, when all of the sudden Yorghenis shows up with his brother to church!! I don't know if you remember him but we were teaching him weeks ago but ended up dropping him because his job wouldn't allow him to come to church.  Apparently his boss asked him which day of the week he would like to have off work, and he said "I don't want a weekday, I want Sunday so I can go to church every week."  The boss approved it and now he is going to be coming every Sunday!  We visited him the next day and said that he was going to pray to know if he should be baptized now or wait for his family to come from Venezuela.  A couple of days later he told us that the Spirit told him yes!  He is going to be baptized next week, the 28th!!   We are super excited!

Here's a picture of an ensign photo with
super super bad grammar

Here's Elder Jensen, Elder Schank thought we
looked like brothers haha

That's about all for this week, thanks for reading this little note!  I love you!!

Con mucho amor,
Elder Olsen

Week 94 Office

Happy Saturday!

In today's news, I took out a flight for my replacement to come into the office on Monday! His name is Elder Jensen, he's going to do an amazing job!  I can't believe I have four transfers in the office hahaha.  All the missionaries I meet say I've been in the office forever, but I feel like it's been so little time!  I'll send you a picture of Elder Jensen next week, we were trained by the same missionary the two of us.  Elder Mozo trained us both, I'm gonna have my brother up in the office representing the Mozo family!  I'm going to be training him for two weeks then I'll be off in the field!  I am super super excited to be a field missionary again, I'm going to have more than 3 hours to proselyte now haha.

As far as the area goes we are still hopeful!  We got iffy news and some super great news with Valeria.  Iffy news is that her baptism had to be pushed back a week due to scheduling conflicts with the baptismal interview.  Super great news is that she's still super excited to be baptized!!  She is ending 1st Nephi!  She's reading a whole bunch haha.  Other area news, we talked to this one guy in our ward named Brother Rodriguez.  He is a returned missionary, he was an AP in his mission he definitely made that clear haha, and he told us about something he did in his mission called burning streets.  It's where we go on a street and we knock on every single door in the street.  We have been having a lot of success with it!  We get like a good 2 future investigators every time we do it for 30 minutes.  Really does pay off.  So that's what we are going to be doing to find more people over these next few days.  That way we can continue keeping our baptisms up over these next few months.  We are really excited with how much the members have been helping us fellowship our investigators.

Hey.  Did you see it?  Did you see the miracle?  I'm talking about this: https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/season-three-filming-book-of-mormon-videos That's right.  THEY RELEASED AN OFFICIAL BOOK OF MORMON TRAILER!!!  We are definitely going to show our investigators the trailer to get them fired up about reading the book!  So what they are planing on doing is on the 20th of September, Friday they are going to release season 1 episode 1 of the Book of Mormon series. They are going to release one new episode every week from the 20th until the end of the year!!!!!  And that's just two seasons!!  That covers up until Enos!   I'm so excited!

This P-day we are probably going to watch a movie, the APs are in Ayacucho for a zone conference and interviews over there with President and Sister Richey so it's just us four today.   I hope you guys have a great week!  Read this talk for FHE or something, I got the lesson this week hahaha https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/jeffrey-r-holland/remember-lots-wife/  It talks about a lot of things, like when we make big changes in our life we should go back to where we were, rather just look at what the future brings.

Thanks for reading this note!   I'll do a bit better about photos this week!   I love you all!!  I pray for all of you!

Con mucho amor,
Elder Olsen

Week 93 Office

Happy Saturday!

It's been another incredible week here in the oficina.  We are happy with another little successful week!  We are going to spend P-day in someplace in Lima, we still aren't sure where we are going but it's probably going to be another mall somewhere, we'll see haha. Last week was pretty cool, going to the temple and the usual mall haha.  I practiced the piano for a little bit, getting some of my rustier hymns polished up.  I'm still the designated piano player in our ward haha, I've been playing every week.  That's been fun, they didn't know how to sing "O, God the Eternal Father" two weeks ago, so the ward music coordinator 15 minutes before sacrament meeting last week pulled everyone in to practice it hahaha.

It's been a great week in the proselyting area!!  Yesterday we just regained contact with Valeria and she says everything was ok and she is persistent about her baptism being on the 14th still!  I guess we have a surprise baptism next week!  She's been attending for the last couple of months, we lost contact with her, then we got back in touch again.  She is going to invite her mom to church for tomorrow, we are excited about that.  Where there's new light of Christ it can affect family members a lot.  Manuel and Mariana are still doing really well, they have a friend, Carlos that they've invited to church and is starting to show some progress as well!   We have high hopes for him, Manuel and Mariana are really excited to share the gospel and go to the temple.  He is going to accompany us for some appointments next week.  We've found some investigators this week, I'll tell you about them as they come to church.  We are still finding Venezuelans, they love it when I tell them that dad served in Venezuela some time ago.  It usually gets a conversation sparked up about what Valencia and Caracas is like, always a super awesome icebreaker.  Every time I find one from there I'll let you know!

I don't know if you guys remember when I was in Ayacucho, we taught Alex Tello and Danny Urbano.  They both got baptized. Alex then had some ups and downs in his activity up until the point I got transferred.  Here I am about a year and a half later, I received a letter from him.  He wrote thanking Elder Gutierrez and I for being so persistent in trying to find him, he then thanked us for having taught him about the Atonement of Christ when he needed it most.  Then the super awesome incredible part, after saying that he says "I wanted to tell you that I sent my papers to go on a mission, I am preparing and everything and it's all thanks to you and Elder Gutierrez."  I've never felt that kind of joy, when someone makes such a righteous decision in their life it's just amazing.  He's awesome!

Well that's all I got for this week.  Thanks for reading this short note, I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Con amor,
Elder Olsen